Russian President Vladimir Putin says that he does not plan to restore Russia’s empire, a day after he ordered Russian troops to be sent to eastern Ukraine and questioned Ukraine’s sovereignty.
“We predicted speculation that Russia plans to restore [its] empire within imperial borders,” Putin says at a meeting with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev in the Kremlin, adding: “This absolutely does not correspond with reality.”
The Russian leader says that Moscow “recognized the new geopolitical realities” after the fall of the Soviet Union and works with “all independent countries in the post-Soviet space.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a Security Council meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 21, 2022. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
But he says Ukraine is an exception, as “it is being used by third countries to create threats towards Russia.”
“Unfortunately after the coup d’etat in Ukraine, we do not see such a level and quality of interaction with Ukraine. It disappeared,” Putin says, referring to Ukraine’s 2014 pro-Western revolution.
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